The Tourism Ministry said Tuesday the number of Arab tourists increased by 90 percent in June, compared with the previous year.

“We don’t want the months of May and June, that witnessed this improvement, to be an exception, instead we want them to be a model for the coming months,” Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon said, arguing that the increase in tourism resulted from Lebanon’s “renewed openness to Gulf countries and the new dynamic in the tourism sector that accompanied the security plan.”

A statement released by the ministry cited an 80.5 percent increase in Saudi Arabian tourists this June, pointing out that the number of visitors topped 7,000 in June compared with approximately 4,000 during the same month in 2013.

Kuwaiti and Emirati tourists, meanwhile, saw the largest percentage increase with more than 4,000 and 800 respectively in June, an increase of approximately 123 percent compared with the previous year.

The improvement came after several Gulf countries lifted their advisories in May against travel to Lebanon, shortly after the formation of Tammam Salam’s Cabinet and the implementation of the security plan in Tripoli and the Bekaa Valley.